The Who: High-Grade Arrested Development

By Jonathan Takiff

Given The Who’s past accomplishments as pop innovators — their introduction of destructo rock theatrics, their popularization of the rock opera concept with the classic "Tommy," their constructive, lyrical experimentation with electronic synthesizer sounds on "Who’s Next" — one could have justly expected the deliverance of a major new statement at the Spectrum last night.

In the British bombers' first area appearance in two years, however, the course of affairs ran to business as usual. It’s a style of consummate refinement, still plenty pleasing to a capacity crowd, but more than a shade tedious and monotonous in the long run (110 minutes) to this long-time admirer.

The root of my concern lies in The Who’s unrelieved reliance on a pounding 4-4 beat, and in songwriter-guitarist Peter Townshend’s seemingly endless lyrical fascination with the trials and tribulations of teenage life.

THE POSTURE WORKS best with their introductory remarks, blasts from the group’s 1966-67 phase of “I Can’t Explain," "My Generation" ("People try to p-p-p-put us down") and the Eddie Cochran scribed "Summertime Blues," and in the show closing excerpts from "Tommy."

A starkly functional-looking quadrophonic sound system, sending (disconcerting) echo effects and prerecorded synthesizer sounds to all four corners of the hall underscores The Who’s machine-like perfection.

It's a formula relying heavily on Keith Moon’s evermore insistent drumming and John Entwhistle’s sturdy bass, punctuated by the scissors kicks and explosive "windmill" guitar slams of Townshend, and the foot-stomping, mike-waving shenanigans of vocalist Roger Daltrey.

It works every time. Well, almost every time.

THE TIMES that don’t quite make it come during an abbreviated reading of The Who’s latest work "Quadrophenia," a thematic exploration of a teenage lad’s four-sided personality (rebellious, suicidal, trend following, vaguely intellectual).

Will the group ever grow again? Only Who knows where or when.